It's easy to get bedazzled by the spectacle of the tempestuous supermodel testifying against the power-hungry dictator about a pouch of mysterious blood diamonds, which were delivered, in true noir style, in the dark of night by some henchman long after the other guests of the luxurious villa – including a Hollywood movie star, a famous statesman, and other celebrities – had gone to bed for the evening. Add a violent storm to cut the phones and a muffled gunshot in the night, and you've all the ingredients of a pulp mystery.

But the truth behind this tale hardly needs another body added to the tens of thousands Charles Taylor, the former Liberian leader, is said to be responsible for. And fictional embellishments are not necessary to turn the world's attention once again to the issue of conflict diamonds that tore apart the West African country of Sierra Leone from 1991-2002.

For that, you only need the involvement of a celebrity.

The last instance of consumer hand-wringing over whether their beloved diamond earrings may have been mined by ruthless Sierra Leonean rebels and sold for the enrichment of bloodthirsty strongmen like Taylor was in 2006, with the release of the Leonardo DiCaprio film Blood Diamond. The international diamond industry, which turns approximately $13bn (£8bn) in global rough-diamond sales into about $72bn worth of jewellery sales per year, reacted to the film before it was even released, afraid that gruesome depictions of the rebel war would impact its bottom line.

It was a sensible fear; the war in Sierra Leone was particularly atrocious. Illiterate men wielding rusted blades routinely amputated civilians' limbs, children were turned into drug-crazed warriors, and mass rape and execution were commonplace. Diamonds mined at gunpoint fuelled the bloodshed – they were sold through Taylor's Liberia into a diamond-marketing system that had been a century in the making; one that didn't care where or from whom they came so long as they could be snatched off the open market before threatening global prices.

Blood diamonds were mixed with legitimate goods from every corner and sold to unsuspecting consumers, oblivious that their desire to showcase a diamond on their finger sometimes came at the expense of someone who could never wear jewellery themselves.

Now it's Naomi Campbell drawing attention yet again to these atrocities, amplified by her trademark petulance at being called to court. The diamond industry's only claim to have changed things for the better is an increasingly rickety-looking certification system for diamonds implemented in 2003, the Kimberley Process (KP). Theoretically based on robust internal controls in producing countries – which are supposedly enforced through site visits, statistical analysis and peer reviews – the KP purports to guarantee that diamonds exported from participating countries are certifiably conflict free.

Although launched with great hope, the system is looking more like a joke each year. It has no leadership other than a rotating chairmanship with few real powers, no accountability and no willpower to use its one punitive tool at its disposal: suspension or expulsion from the club. Site reviews for some countries are thorough; others are phoned in. Internal diamond-tracking systems in countries like Guinea, Angola and Democratic Republic of Congo are so poor there's no telling where the diamonds they export originate.

Venezuela simply stopped issuing KP certificates in 2005, but it took until 2008 for the KP to address the matter. Venezuela then opted to "self-suspend" from the program, but continues to mine diamonds – every carat of which is smuggled to neighbouring countries for export under cover of their certificates. Rebels in Cote d'Ivoire, the only official source of conflict diamonds at the moment, freely smuggle illicit goods through their neighbours.

And against great outcry, even from within the diamond industry itself, the KP has allowed Zimbabwe to continue exporting diamonds in the face of gross human rights violations by the government itself – violations that mirror the very atrocities the Kimberley Process was meant to prevent. As a result, Zimbabwe's diamonds are certified "conflict free," although hundreds of people were killed and brutalised to send the stones on to the jewellery store.

Through her antics, Naomi Campbell is adept at drawing attention to herself. For once it's welcome, so long as some of that attention spills over onto more important matters.